Sweet Horizon | Nøgne Ø - Det Kompromissløse Bryggeri A/S

0 characters.
We love reviews! Turn your rating into one with ≥ 150 characters. Awesome. Thanks for the review!

In English, explain why you're giving this rating. Your review must discuss the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) and your overall impression in order to indicate that you have legitimately tried the beer. Nonconstructive reviews may be removed without notice and action may be taken on your account.

Reviews by SammyDavisJrJrJr:

A - Black-as-night body with a bit of a mocha-colored head that disipates quickly, and doesn't leave behind much lacing.

S - They are not kidding about the sweet part, sweet fruity esters, sweet alcohol and sweet sugary chocolate aromas dominate the aroma. I'm getting a little smoke, roasted malt, sweet cooking spices and some espresso in the aroma too, just enough to give the big sweetness some structure.

T - The alcohol is very present, as one would expect at 14% abv, and the honey and sweet apple flavors seem to dominate the malt flavors one would expect from an Imperial Stout. There is sweet chocolate present in the entry, and coffee and roast present in the finish, but it is all weighed down by the alcohol sweetness.

M - This beer is the definition of coating. I felt like I opening one of the Supper Club's in the fridge just to try to clean up my palate after 1/3 of the bottle. The alcohol is nowhere near as abrasive as I expected it to be.

D - I'm glad I got to try this, as it proved to be an interesting experimental beer. It was a much better experience than my run-ins with Dark Horizon (although not as good as Red Horizon, that beer was amazing!). I guess I look at it like the steroid users in baseball. Yeah, they are huge, and who doesn't love watching a bunch of homeruns? But at the same time they're injured half to the time, and bacne... ew. This beer is Left Hand Milk Stout on steriods, and although I really enjoyed trying it, I think I'll take a normal sweet stout on a regular basis.

More User Reviews:

Pours a near pitch black with an edge of dark coffee and a thin mocha ring and just a few specks floating about. The nose is massive. Huge coffee beans and booze supported by some dark fruit and soft chocolate. Then the taste... BAM! Jesus this beer is masterfully balanced. Big buttery chocolate with sweet, sweet caramel coffee. The ABV is just right, not too hot by any means. I normally get turned off by especially sweet beers but this works really nicely. I can't discuss the taste without tipping my hat to a perfect velvety mouthfeel that only leaves sweet hot coffee to cling.

Overall, this beer is such an awesome surprise after being so disappointed by his older brother of the sake yeast variety. Highly recommended to any stout drinker.

A- Black, relatively low carb, pours thick. sticks to the side of the glass

S- Dark malt, coffee, chochlate, slight hint of booze

T- I normally do not like sweet beers, but this one was done just right IMO. To everyone who says its 'too sweet'; This is a sweet beer! its in the name! what were you expecting? Anyways, Ive had this twice and have enjoyed it greatly each time. Its a really thick, syrupy, stout. The coffee helps make it almost mocha-y. A little booze comes through, but surprisingly little for being 14%.

M- Thick, sweet, syrupy

O- This is a weird beer. Think of a desert wine thats black and tastes like coffee. Thats what this is. I happen to like it a lot. I dislike most overly sweet beer, but this was done just right. If you're expecting something other than a sweet coffee imperial stout, look elsewhere.

I was able to get a bottle of the 2nd edition & I have to say that this beer is amazing! It's strong, it's deep & it's very well balanced. It reminds me of bourbon county with a very sweet feel & taste. This is a dessert beer with full flavor & feel. Nogne Ø out did themselves with such a delicious brew!

Kick ass in so many ways. Damn near and dessert wine. As the label says "dessert beer"...nothing more needs to be said. Kind of an undependable brew, but still great and should not be over looked. This brew rocks and is highly recommended. Aroma is killer and flavors are great too. Feel falls short.

T- This is a dessert beer for sure. Lots of sweet, sticky, dark fruits and caramel. Sweet coffee. Not really picking up any chocolate. Finishes with some coffee bitterness and just a hint of alcohol heat, but not nearly as much as the 14% would indicate. Maybe as much heat as a lot of 9% beers I've had. Even with all of the sweetness, my mouth is left dry and craving more after each sip.

M- Nice and full bodied. I mean come on, its an under-attenuated dark horizon with syrups and sugars added. Low carbonation.

D- This is the most drinkable dessert beer I've ever had. I could have drank at least a 12 oz. bottle.

Overall, I like this beer a lot...and a little bit better than a year ago. The taste is the high point. You have to go into this beer knowing its a dessert beer, and take it for what it is (they clearly indicate this is a sweet dessert beer with the name!). All you haters out there can send me your remaining bottles for disposal.

Pours with a light viscosity...like a cola, but without visible signs of effervescence. Dark with translucent edges and a scant mocha colored ring of tiny bubbles. Tons of boozy vanilla in the first sniff followed by deep chocolate cherry...nicely complex. First tiny sip coats much more than the pour would suggest. The mouth feel lingers nicely and the high ABV packs a bit of heat. The chocolate cherry flavors mirror the nose. A really nice sipper.

Oily, inky black colour with no head. Good but lacking the special visual appearance that some suds add to the mix.

Sweet with plenty of sugary malt and sweet alcohols contributing. The chocolate note is prominent as is a light, fruity coffee. Some more yeast esters add further depth.

Very sweet malt with lots of esters adding fruitiness. The chocolate is sweet and pronounced as is the complexity that coffee adds. No real bitterness but that is only because of the massive sugar content. I really like this.

You got exactly what was advertised with this little bottle. A big sweet stout that is best consumed as desert. I polished the whole thing off myself, which is something that I would not attempt again. I think that 1/3rd of the 8.5 oz bottle would have been adequate. This beer is very good in small doses, but way too much for one person. This was like drinking a fine confection. If you can't see past the sweetness, you won't appreciate it. this is special occasion beer.

The flavor is incredibly sweet, and thus, particularly out of balance. The flavor comes in waves of molasses, toffee, melted chocolate, and sugar cookies. The onslaught does not stop. Incredibly sweet and certainly a sipper without much hint of coffee.

Thin to medium bodied with low carbonation and a touch hot with alcohol. The body of the beer is somewhat oily.

Pours black with a thin light brown head. The head recedes into a wispy layer on top leaving decent lacing and decent legs.

Smells of lightly roasted malts with hints of chocolate syrup. Also present are moderate amounts of oily plastic aromas that are very distinct.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though with overwhelming amounts of cloying sweetness. Slightly roasted malt flavors kick things off and are quickly overwhelmed by loads of heavy molasses and sugar – almost as though it was dumped directly in my glass. The plastic notes in the aroma come out near the end of the sip, unfortunately the one aspect of the beer the sweetness couldn’t cover.

Mouthfeel is good. It’s got a nice thickness with soft carbonation.

Drinkability is not good at all. I couldn’t finish my glass as the sweetness was way too intense.

Overall this is one of the worst beers I’ve had in a while. I usually enjoy Nogne O’s beers but there’s no other way to describe this beer than a high ABV attempt gone awry.

Man, I was not a fan of this beer. It's tough to even call it a beer as flat as it was. If it had been called a port I may have enjoyed it more.

The beer had zero head and no carbonation whatsoever. That wasn't an encouraging start. The liquid was pitch black and viscous.

The smell is okay at best. I get some licorice, rye spice, port and alcohol. The smell is pungent.

Taste-wise, it's not atrocious, but it leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering the price tag. Despite supposedly having coffee added, this taste was hard to detect. I got sweet syrup and port more than anything.

While drinking it, I was bothered by the syrupy feel of the beer, the lack of carbonation and the sensation that I was drinking a port more than an ale. One positive is that the 14% alcohol was well-masked.

IN the end, this beer was a big bust and doesn't leave me with a favorable impression of Nogne. Then again, maybe the brewery was aware of the oddity that was this beer and thus had it retired in recognition of this.

Poured from a "bottle" into a snifter. Can this bottle BE any smaller? Poured out a dark, dark brown. Pretty much black with very little, almost no head.

The smell was of everything sweet. Chocolate, vanilla, caramel, with some clove and coffee. The booze is a little present.

Sugared prunes and dark fruits dominate. A raisin-like, molasses flavor plays a tune. Brown sugar and red licorice dance around a bit. Almost a grape in the aftertaste.

It's odd too say. The mouthfeel wasn't smooth...but it wasn't harsh. I guess it was pretty well balanced.

It's pretty effin sweet. It's too sweet to have too much of it by yourself. It's a ridiculously small bottle but for a good reason. I guess I was a bit more surprised with this one as having the Dark Horizon as my last Nogne O beer.

I'm giving this beer another 1/2 point because of the bottle/tin presentation. Pretty nice. The pour into my HOTD tasting glass is deep, dark brown, with just a wisp of a tan head. Pour is thick.

Aroma is full of sweet flavors. Coffee at the fore, but behind that are aromas of milk chocolate, raisins, molasses, brown sugar. Anything that is sweet.

Taste is very sweet. This is a sugar bomb. Coffee again leads the way. The majority of the sip is quite nice as a dessert beer. On the back end there's a quality that is off-putting - like a burned espresso. That's not great.

Mouthfeel is thick, smooth, with virtually no carbonation. It's really quite lovely. The velvety nature is really impressive, and it lends support to the dessert-like quality of the beer. Forget the cake.

Drinkability is fine for what it is. I had four ounces of the stuff, and the sweetness is pretty dramatic - but considering that's what the beer is trying to be, I can't knock it much.

Good beer from Nøgne Ø. Recommended if you're looking for a dessert beer.

It's rare that i'll ever dump a beer after a few sips, but that's what happened with this beer. Thanks Dave for sharing, reviewed from written notes.

Pours black with brownish edges, feeble foam rises and leaves a thin ring at the edge of the glass.

Smells like a coffee with one too many packets of nutrasweet dumped in. Lots of roast, caramel, cloying sweetness.

Ugh. The taste was wince inducing, utterly disgusting. Dump 4-5 packets of sugar or nutrasweet into a cup of coffee, and this is what you get. Harshly bitter aftertaste, with a sickly sweet cloying taste upfront. Bare bones of a withering stout hangs in between. Thin and astringent, lingering harsh alcohol. Dumped out after a few sips, and again that's rare for me. Spare yourself and consider yourself lucky if this never passes your lips.
Nøgne Øøps, I dumped in the whole sugar bowl.